Topic Summary

Posted by: thaiga

More than five years for lewd acts with teen pupil, rape trial to follow

A 51-year-old Nakhon Ratchasima school director, who is at the centre of a scandal of having an inappropriate intimate relationship with a 14-year-old pupil, was sentenced on Thursday to an immediate jail sentence of five years and two months for four charges linked to lewd acts committed with a minor under 15 and taking her away from her parents for the purposes of a lewd act.

Sentencing was separate from a charge the man faces of raping a girl under 15. Witness hearing sessions foir that trial will be held from October 16 to 18. The Bua Yai Provincial Court judge found guilty and initially jailed him for 10 years and four months before commuting that by half due to his confession.

The court judge also said that the defendant had the right to appeal the current sentence within 30 days.

already been dismissed from the civil service without any pension and welfare benefits over the serious ethic code breach linked to this scandal.

Posted by: nan

A panel has recommended that a former school director in Nakhon Ratchasima province be expelled without a pension from the civil service for having an inappropriate romantic relationship with a 14-year-old schoolgirl.

A sub-panel of the province’s education committee decided at a meeting on Thursday to recommend the dismissal of Nathapop Boongthongtho, 51, said it chairman, General Marut Limcharoen. That action will next be proposed on July 12 to Governor Wichien Chantharanotha, and the provincial education committee he chairs,

The nine-member sub-panel – assigned to look into disciplinary action against Nathapop and ensure justice for all sides – took an in-depth look at the case, based on the sub-panel’s own findings and those from a separate fact-finding probe by the Nakhon Ratchasima Primary Education Service Area Office 6, Marut said.

They concluded that Nathapop should be dismissed from the civil service without a pension or welfare benefits as he had committed a serious disciplinary breach. The sub-committee also said the criminal prosecution case against him should run its course, he said.

The sub-panel also agreed that the victim must receive care to ensure that her education was not affected by the events and that she would graduate, Marut added.

The Ban Patong Thanoen Samakkee School committee and teachers in early January brought the scandal to the media’s attention by producing Line chat messages from the Mathayom 2 girl’s mobile phone as evidence. This led to the man's transfer out of the school to an inactive post pending investigations into his alleged three-month intimate relationship with the girl, which reportedly started shortly after he took a position as director of the school in Bua Yai district.

A police investigation resulted in three criminal charges against Nathapop for statutory rape of a minor under 15, “taking a minor under 15 away from his or her parent or guardian for a lewd act”, and libel. Nathapop denied the charges and vowed to fight them in court.

The libel charge was linked to an alleged dispute with a local woman who reportedly was the first to reveal the scandal. The woman reportedly produced Line chat messages claiming the former school director allegedly addressed the schoolgirl as “darling” and “dear wife'”. The woman's son, who attends Mathayom 3, is said to be the former boyfriend of the unnamed schoolgirl.

Posted by: Johnnie F.

New school director, 51, under fire for ‘intimate relationship’ with schoolgirl, 14

A 51-YEAR-OLD school director accused of having an inappropriate romantic relationship with a 14-year-old schoolgirl in Nakhon Ratchasima’s Bua Yai district has been transferred effective immediately.

School director Nathapop Boonthongtho was transferred out of the school to an inactive post pending a disciplinary panel’s investigation. Nathapop did not show up at work this week. If he is found guilty, he will be sacked from the civil service and also face criminal charges, Nakhon Ratchasima Primary Education Service Area Office 6 deputy director Supapongsa Chantharang said yesterday. A Ban Patong Thanoen Samakkee School committee and teachers this week brought the scandal to the media’s attention by producing Line chat messages from the girl’s mobile phone as evidence. That evidence prompted the Nakhon Ratchasima Primary Education Service Area Office 6 to establish a disciplinary panel to investigate the allegation and prepare assistance for the Mathayom 2 student. The office’s Promotion of Educational Provision Group head, Khomkrit Mumthaisong, yesterday led panel members to visit the school to investigate the alleged three-month relationship, which reportedly started shortly after the school director took a position at the school.

The committee was expected to gather evidence and report its result to the office’s director within seven days, Supapongsa said. A friend of the victim told the panel that the girl previously had a boyfriend in Mathayom 3, but after Nathapop took the job at the school he had made advances and had an “intimate relationship” with her. The friend said the school director would tell the girl to skip classes to go on trips and stay with him at a resort. The victim had said she was “in love” with Nathapop and he had promised to ask the girl’s family for permission to marry her on February 14, the friend said. In another development, Paiwan Haithong, the leader of a residents’ group calling for Nathapop to be punished, filed a libel complaint against him at Bua Yai Police Station, claiming she had received a threatening phone call from him in which he had made accusations about her son.